


Follow Up

by fabulously_frenzied



Series: ML Oneshots [15]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Oneshot, sequel to another oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 19:17:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20879336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabulously_frenzied/pseuds/fabulously_frenzied
Summary: After the meltdown of a lifetime, Marinette has to come to terms with what her partner now knows.Takes place directly afterAnd Another Thing.





	Follow Up

**Author's Note:**

> For [mcheang](https://mcheang.tumblr.com/<mcheang</am) on tumblr. I appreciate you as the first person to Ask me about a follow up!

"Marinette, I'm _sorry."_

She's finally snapped out of it, just now resuming a level of consciousness she'd lost during her tirade. She stops, her head still spinning, and the first thing her eyes refocus on is her partner struggling to get up off the ground.

_Oh no._

"Chat," she gasps, "oh, God, Chat—"

"It-it's okay, Pri–Marinette," he corrects himself, grunting as he kneels forward. She's too worn out to even properly react to the fact that he knows who she is now, much less what he calls her. He places a hand on his knee and pushes himself up. He's still standing a good fifteen or so feet away, and hesitantly walks toward her, stopping an arm's length from her.

"I know there's a lot we have to talk about, but I have to leave right now." As if on cue, his ring chirps a warning, causing him to chuckle nervously. "We'll follow up on this later, okay? I promise, I'm here to listen to you. I hope you can forgive me. I don't ever want to make you feel this way again," he swears before saluting and vaulting off into the sunset.

She stares after him for a good few minutes, barely able to process his words. She snaps back again, and slumps onto the roof of whatever building she'd thrown her partner onto in her fit of rage, eyes unable to break away from that sunset. In her peripherals, she registers the anxious red blob flitting by her head as her kwami.

"Tikki, what have I _done?"_

* * *

For once, Marinette isn't late to school. She'd been so afraid of relapsing into another breakdown if she so much as thought about her encounter with Chat Noir the night before that she'd hyperfocused on her homework before going straight to bed. Her parents had asked her in the morning if she felt okay, and she hadn't known how to answer them. What was she supposed to say, that she'd just screamed her lungs out at her superhero partner after watching him die for the hundredth time? One person knows her identity now, and that's one too many. She wasn't bringing her parents into this, no matter how much she wanted to just unload everything that's happened over the past year and a half on them. She's so tired of having to hide the truth, and it's weighing on her more and more.

She takes her seat in the classroom, willfully neglecting to respond to Alya's small talk and teasing. She pulls her homework out of her bag so she doesn't somehow forget to hand it to Mme Bustier in her absentmindedness, then reaches for her sketchbook. She can't think about last night. She can't, she can't, she ca—

Adrien walks into the classroom with under-eye shadows dark enough to peek through the concealer he'd halfheartedly applied in an attempt to cover them up. His eyes droop so low that Marinette can almost only see the whites of his eyes as she watches him slowly shuffle toward his seat in front of her. She's too confused about his drastic change in demeanor to be flustered by his presence. 

"Whoa, man, you alright?" Nino asks when his friend _flumps_ into the seat next to him.

"I couldn't sleep last night," Adrien replies simply.

"Yeah? You say that a lot, Sunshine, but you look way worse today than normal," Alya points out. Adrien doesn't seem to have a response for that, instead looking away and casting his sunken eyes toward Marinette. She doesn't know what this means, or what to do except stare back. For as closely as she pays attention to him, she's never fully been able to figure out Adrien Agreste, but this is just _strange._

"Are you sure you're okay, Adrien? You don't look very well," Marinette says, urging all of her sympathy into her voice despite how apathetic she's felt since last night. The sound of her voice seems to do something to him, though, because his eyes blow wide open.

"Yeah! Y-yeah, uh, I'm okay? I'm okay. I think—I guess—I had a lot on my mind last night, and I just couldn't turn my brain off, y'know?" He chuckles nervously, and Marinette can't put her finger on why that particular laugh sounds so familiar. "Hey, um," he continues, and for the first time she can remember, it actually takes effort for her to focus on him, "Marinette? Can I, uh, would—hmm. Could—could I, ah, talk to you? Later? Just us. I-I want to talk to you. I mean, um, obviously, but, uh, yeah. Later?"

"Sure," she says, doing her best to give him the most reassuring smile she can muster before turning back to her sketchbook. He seems placated for now, and she wonders what he could possibly have to ask her. Alya smacks her arm.

"Girl!" her friend whisper-shouts. "What was _that?_ You don't panic when Adrien shows up, and when he asks to talk to you _in private_ later, you just say 'sure?' _'Sure?_ What the hell kind of answer is that? You've been waiting for an opportunity like this for over a year and all you can say is_ 'sure?'_ Hon, I was worried about Adrien when he walked in, but now I feel like I should be more worried about you. Are _you_ feeling okay?"

"Yeah," Marinette mumbles, shrugging. "I'm not really all here today, I guess."

"Evidently not! But you'd _better_ be all there when Sunshine comes back to talk to you about whatever it is, and you _know_ I expect _all_ the deets."

"Yeah, sure, Alya," she replies, sighing while shutting her sketchbook as class begins.

* * *

It's not until lunchtime that Adrien so much as even looks in Marinette's direction again, to the point where Marinette had been afraid he might not want to talk anymore. That fear is quickly dispelled when he approaches her in the hallway after class.

"Hey, um, Marinette?" His voice is so tentative that she thinks maybe, for once, _he's_ the one afraid, not her.

"Yes, Adrien?" She pushes open the door to the locker room and he follows her inside, and—yeah, he definitely isn't supposed to be holding onto his books that tightly. He might cut off circulation in his arms if he's not careful. She opens her locker and starts to take out her books from this morning to replace them with what she needs for this afternoon.

"I, um, I just—hmm." He exhales, then looks her firmly in the eyes. "I wanted to apologize to you, Marinette."

"Apologize?" If she wasn't already confused before, she certainly is now. "What would you have to be sorry for?"

"The way I told you to handle Lila. I'm sorry. When I told you that, I was really only pulling that from my experience from the media trying to spin rumors about me for their tabloids. I wasn't—I didn't think Lila would be so... so _vicious_ to you! I-I mean, here I was, thinking that if we just don't, uh, don't poke the bear, she won't get akumatized again, and eventually she'll say something she can't get out of. I hate that I didn't even consider how you might have felt. She threatened you, for crying out loud! I—I'm sorry. I never want to see you hurt, and I'm sorry you almost were because of what I told you." He scratches at the back of his neck, laughing nervously once again, and that sensation of déjà vu form earlier is back. "I hope you can forgive me."

_Wait..._

"Adrien, I..." How does she say this? He's staring at her like he might physically break if she tells him she can't forgive him. "I won't say it's okay, because it's not, but... I do forgive you. It's just—"

"What? D-did I do something else wrong? Oh, no, what did I do? Whatever it was, I'm sorry, I—"

"Adrien." She holds up a hand and steps closer to him, effectively shutting him up. She leans toward his ear and whispers, "I never told you she threatened me." 

He breaks his gaze, looking down slightly as he processes her implication. His eyes widen even more than before once the realization hits him, and his hands fly to his head.

Before he can stutter out a defense or excuse or whatever else is formulating inside that panicking brain of his, she gently puts her hands on his arms, causing him to look back at her again. 

"We really do have a lot to talk about, don't we?"

**Author's Note:**

> Hey frenz! If you want to see me work with some of your ideas, come ask me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/fabulously-frenzied)! It's way easier for me to directly interact with you there and see what I can do with the ideas you have. If you're not subscribed to me here (which is totally fine!!), I also post updates on that blog for the new works I post. Happy reading!


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